I ran an article by Joanne Cachapero on XBIZ today entitled “Health Care in Adult” that touched upon this very serious issue that impacts not only adult performers but everyone, regardless of what business you’re in. Beyond the article itself, the text was accompanied by an interesting sidebar, which I’ve published below; both to bring attention to the issue and to the article itself:
“Ask performers if they’ve ever had spider bites or seen other performers with them,” Dave Gallegos, president of X-Works, says. “You’ll see that a ton of them have. But do you really think that many people are getting bitten by spiders? What they really have are staph infections. But they don’t realize it, and they just keep passing them around to other performers. Someone should let them know about it.”
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, also has been observed among patients at the AIM clinic, which has posted a warning on its website.
“I wouldn’t call it really an outbreak,” AIM nurse practitioner Patrick Hernandez-Kline says of the reported MRSA infections. “But it can definitely be passed more with intimate contact. Sometimes even just from rubbing. I haven’t seen it a whole lot, but I’ve been seeing it crop up a little bit more here and there. We’re trying to nip it in the bud before it actually gets to really bad infections or scarring.”
Dr. Robert Rigg, whose patient roster includes a large number of industry performers, emailed XBIZ twice about a recent development and agrees with Gallegos that the problem is significant.
“This MRSA bacterial infection is really a big deal — lots of little abscesses and lost time from work with potential for scarring of the skin,” he says. “The infection causes redness of the skin, which progresses to ‘pimples’ or ‘boils’ filled with pus. The bacterium is a staph infection that is resistant to many common antibiotics. The infection is highly contagious and passed around the adult community due to the prolonged close personal contact involved.”
As you can see, the medical threats facing performers and others are myriad and to be taken seriously. Webmasters are not immune to the problem either. Over a decade sitting in front of a computer has turned me into a great jelly donut in need of exercise – some of which I’ll get over this long holiday weekend. I suggest you do the same.
